1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a traffic information collecting device, a traffic information collecting method, and a traffic information collecting program product in a communication network, and more particularly, to a traffic information collecting device, a traffic information collecting method, and a traffic information collecting program product for collecting information required for making a load sharing in the communication network.
The present invention relates to a node in the communication network, having a function to collect information required for making the load sharing in the communication network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet is a connectionless network in which a connection is not established, and communication data are divided into IP packets on which an IP (Internet Protocol) address is labeled for transmission. The IP packets are transferred between routers based on the IP addresses, to deliver to a destination router or computer (hereinafter referred to simply as “an destination”).
It is determined according to a routing protocol which route between the routers is used for relay based on the IP address to deliver the IP packets to the destination. As the routing protocol, at present, the RIP (Routing Information Protocol) or the OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) protocol is generally used. In these routing protocols, basically, a shortest route (or a shortest path) up to the destination is acquired based on cost of each link in the communication network (for example, a hop count), and the shortest route is set as a communication route of the IP packets.
In these routing protocols, however, the shortest route is only acquired based on cost, and a route is not acquired taking into consideration conditions of a traffic of each link. Moreover, only when a topology of the communication network changes, the new route is set, and setting or modification is not conducted in real time. On the other hand, with the spread of the Internet, a packet amount (in other words, a traffic amount or load) intercommunicating in the internet is abruptly increased.
As the result, congestion generates in the route determined by the routing protocol.
To be sure, but in the OSPF protocol there is a routing called an equal cost multipath that a plurality of the routes are determined in order to disperse the IP packets to the plurality of routes. However, this routing can be used only in the case where the plurality of routes having equal costs are present, and also as the OSPF protocol is used, it is impossible to cope with real-time fluctuations of the load of the communication network.
Then, at present, as a technology system for avoiding the congestion in the internet, traffic engineering is discussed. This traffic engineering generally sets a plurality of routes up to the destination, and also monitors conditions of the traffic of each route in real time, and selects an idle route or a route having a small load to transmit the IP packets, and disperses the load (traffic) between the plurality of routes.
In order to conduct such the traffic engineering, it is necessary that each router is informed of information in the traffic containing busy condition of each route.